The Positive Impacts of Labor Unions

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Have you ever wondered what life would have been like if labor unions never existed? Labor unions were originally formed to help improve the worker’s low wages, their horrible working conditions, and lower the hours they work a day. “ Unions are powerful by the power of members acting together, linking arms, figuratively and literally, taking a stand , and forcing their agenda on either their employers or political representatives” ( Asher 650).Unions are only powerful if everybody is working together, if one person does something wrong, the whole organization fails. Labor unions formed after the Civil War as a response to the modern Industrial Economy. Labor Unions impacted workers everywhere by helping increase wages, better working conditions, and better benefits. In 1636, the first considered labor union disturbance was recorded. The Main fishermen employed by Robert Trelawney at Richmond island, were reported to have fallen “into a mutiny” when their wages were withheld. It was a small group of men and their protest was hardly remember, but it showed how cooperating together would lead to a better result than working by yourself, it also taught other people how to stand up for what they believe in. ”Usually the first step for any union is to get workers to join in the organization. After a union has become established in a plant or industry, its major functions are arranging labor contracts and handling job disputes” (Mills 4). The hardest part of joining a labor union is knowing there is a possibility of being fired or hated for retaliation against your employer. Most men were afraid to get caught associating with a union because they could be faced with jail time, beaten , or fired if caught. Labor unions tried to keep t... ... middle of paper ... ... form back then, we would probably still be working ten hour days with low wages and harmful working conditions. Today, one out of every eight Americans are joined to a union, and if you don’t count government officials the number drops to one of twelve Americans. That shows that the union membership is decreasing a lot. Since previous unions had a lot of success in improving the workplace for us, now we don’t really need labor unions as much as we did a century ago. Labor Unions were created to help people improve their wages, work conditions, hours, and security. Unions impacted the world in a lot of ways and for that we have better lives now, for what they did in the past.” Some key freedoms that we take for granted today- the weekend, for example- were won by labor unions efforts, but we have always been lukewarm about the movement” (History of Labor Unions).

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